2/12/17 - Grade 5

To begin the day, grade 5 had T'filah. During this time, we said and chanted our prayers, and Rabbi Denker told us this week's Torah portion is named Yithro, who wasn't a Jew. His daughter married Moses's son. In this story, as Moses and half a million Jewish people were going to Israel, which was a lot of people to for one person to lead. He answered their questions, offered aid, and served as a judge and jury. Yithro suggested he break up the group and appoint each a easer, and that way things could be resolved much easier- only the bigger issues would need to come to Moses. He was to appoint people who spoke the truth and weren't greedy. Over the centuries, we have been given ideas from not just the Jewish people, but everyone in order to become who we are today.



Next, for kehilah, we began with Havdalah. The sixth graders carried the candle, the wine and the spices around the circle we were in. After saying the blessings over bread and water, we had a snack of pretzels.



In class, Mrs. Zamir passed out some papers. These papers were about Tu B'shevat. There are 4 levels of living:
1. Assiyah - physical (doing) - winter
2. Yetzirah - formation (emotion) - spring
3. Briyah - creation - summer
4. Atzilut - nobility - fall

Each of these refers to foods we eat on this holiday. Assiyah refers to nuts- hard on the outside, soft on the inside. For this, Mrs. Zamir gave us pumpkin seeds as we began to create our own little Tu B'shevat snack. Next we talked about yetzirah, which refers to some fruits- soft on the outside, hard on the inside. For this, we were given dates to add to our snack. Briyah refers to soft fruit- through and through, they are soft, and make one think of happy things. For this we were given figs. We were given 2 crackers to represent wheat. At the last level, atzilut, everything comes together and is in harmony.



For Hebrew, Mrs. Zamir taught us a song in Hebrew. We learned it through repeating her, and while we did we stood up to pay better attention. After our fun song, we chanted the prayer we are working on, Avot V'imahot, as a class.